The foolish mind of Tom Tancredo

The latest gathering of the minds of the Tea Party movement took place in Nashville last Thursday. Attendees showed up dressed in silly garb from the mid-1700's, as if somehow that makes them patriotic. Some of the conservative big guns were there in full force, including Sarah Palin, Joseph Farrah, the known racist Roy Moore, and most interestingly, Tom Tancredo.

Tancredo kicked things off with a speech that was another crystal clear example of what is wrong with conservatives these days. He was greeted by a shower of applause, but it wasn't long until his mouth got him in trouble. He found himself placed squarely in the hot seat by progressives and freethinkers on Friday morning.

According to Tancredo, there should be a mandatory "civics literacy test" for voters. He went on to say the reason Barack Obama was elected is "people who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama," trying to draw a comparison between the president and the deceased Iraqi dictator.

Racist much, Tom?

The last time there was a civics literacy test for voting purposes in the United States was in the 50's in Alabama as they tried to ban black people from voting. They couldn't just come out and say, "You're black, so you're not allowed to vote." Instead, racist legislators in the Alabama state government made up a test that even a law professor couldn't pass. Rachel Maddow explains it best:





Tom's comments drew a roar of applause by the attendees, some of which paid up to $500 a ticket. But all Tancredo did was make himself, his party, and the the teabaggers in attendance the laughing stock of political ideology one more time. I'm still in awe, though hardly surprised, by the sheer foolishness, hypocrisy, and stupidity of conservatives like Tancredo.

Take a few moments to browse through some of the images in the numbered links below, have a good laugh at the expense of conservatives, then keep in mind that Tancredo has the nerve to infer that anyone who voted for Obama can't spell.

Go ahead. Take your time. Laugh until it hurts.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.

The spelling in this image is correct, but...well...you know...Medicare is socialized medicine.

I know that there is the chance that some of these pics have been photoshopped, but I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, I'm not too concerned about conservatives who can't squeeze two brain cells together to form a complete sentence with correct spelling and punctuation. What I'm really concerned about is Tancredo's interpretation of history and the First Amendment, not to mention recent American history:

"Somethings we can deal with just in a political way and just, you know, by the votes we cast. Other things will require a commitment to passing on our culture--and we do have one you know! It is based on Judeo Christian principles whether people like it or they don't! That's who we are! And if you don't like it, don't come here! And if you're here and don't like it go home! Go someplace else!"

I couldn't respond to Tancredo's commentary any better than Cenk Uygur did. Watch the clip at the bottom of this post as Cenk slams Tancredo and hands his posterior to him on a silver platter.

A few interesting things to note.

1. If you're a Teabagger and love Tancredo but hate the RealID Act, you should be aware that Tancredo co-sponsored the bill in Congress.

2. Tancredo's concerned that "the president and his left-wing allies in Congress are going to look for every opportunity to destroy the Constitution before we have a chance to save it." Now Tancredo is concerned about the Constitution?! This is the same man who attacked Obama as anti-Constitutional but voted for passage of the Patriot Act in 2001, which practically eviscerated the Constitution.

3. If you're one of the Teabaggers who try to draw the same stupid parallel between Obama and Islam because of his middle name, please stop. Some of you are the same people who worship neocon henchmen like Donald Rumsfeld, who shook hands with Saddam Hussein in 1980 then gave him all the chemical and biological weapons he wanted. 28 years later Hussein was hung for crimes against humanity, including using those weapons against his own people. And this makes sense how?